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So, as I stated some time ago that I would try the Better Diesel FBC product that claims it has a fuel combustion improver catalyst but does nothing else like improving lubricity and cetane and report. I purchased a couple of the 16oz containers for $29.95 each. I've had these two containers for a while and decided to give it a try on a fishing trip pulling my boat when my truck did a regen right before filling up with diesel before my trip. Drove a little over 250 miles and my truck did a regen and the regen time was ~9 miles to complete. This result on the first tank is not any better than the Archoil product. So, I'll continue to run the product going forwards to see if the FBC catalyst improver is any better than Archoil and perhaps I'll dose it a little stronger than recommended in the future if required to see if there's any benefit.
Here's some of FBC claims:
Better Diesel FBC delivers a 1-2 Punch that:
Yields more horsepower per gallon with verified gains of 10% or more in combustion efficiency that translates to 70% less soot emissions.
Lowers the burn off temperature of soot and carbon. Cleans your DPF and engine components as you drive to prolong engine component lifetimes.
Experience the combined benefits of better fuel mileage, fewer DPF regens, and lower DEF consumption. Keep the profits you earn by staying out of the shop for repairs and maintenance.
Better Diesel FBC is a proven solution for fewer parked regens, less downtime and expensive shop visits.
Ohhh... Better Diesel FBC is good stuff! And to no surprise, I found it to be quite a bit better than the AR6500!
To start, here is a quote about what to expect when you start to use it. I would not expect to see any sort of change for a bit of time such as in just one or 2 tanks of fuel, especially on a truck with a few miles on it that has not been run with an actual FBC to begin with.
Q: How long will it take for Better Diesel FBC to burn out carbon deposits and soot build-up in my engine and exhaust system?
A: The time it takes for Better Diesel FBC to burn off accumulated soot and carbon deposits for an in-service diesel engine is approximately 4 to 6 weeks. Keep in mind that the initial “clean out phase” may produce higher levels of smoke as the soot is being burned off at a lower temperature with the help of the fuel borne catalyst. In some cases, especially for very high mileage engines, DPF sensors may react to to this temporary condition and things may appear to get worse before they get better. This is normal and should pass without resulting in an engine “derate” situation.
I started running Better Diesel FBC in my truck early on... I can't remember exactly when, but I would guess before I hit 10k miles on the truck. I am now at 73k miles and I have ran it in every tank of fuel, except for a 6000+ mile stretch in which I gave the Archoil AR6500 a shot. Here are a few numbers to compare them too:
For the Better Diesel FBC numbers, I used the immediate 6356 miles right up to when I changed over to AR6500. This included about 800 miles towing our camper, the rest unloaded:
Regens: 7
Average regen interval: 941.2 miles.
For the AR6500 numbers, I used 2 entire bottles (it came as a 2 pack), which covered 6,278 miles, of which, I towed our camper about 1000 miles and the rest unloaded. Probably 2/3's of my filll ups were using there standard dose while the rest was the doubled up "performance" dose.
Regens: 7
Average regen interval: 868.5
I was clearly getting a larger interval between regens using the Better Diesel FBC, and after thinking about it for a while, I wonder if because I had used the Better Diesel FBC for so long right up to trying the AR6500 is the only reason I got as good of numbers with the Archoil that I did... Also, being that I towed more miles while using the AR6500, I would have thought that would have given the edge to the AR6500, but the Better Diesel still beat it out by 70 mile longer average regens. Now this may not seem like much on just a couple of regens, but over time it can add up. Based on these numbers, for every 100k miles I should average 106 regens on the Better Diesel and 115 on the Archoil. So 9 more regens per hundred thousand miles. That still may not seem like many more, but after 300k miles, that's 27 more regens on the AR6500... and so on...
It's also worth mentioning that alongside the Better Diesel FBC, I was using Hot Shots EDT for my actual fuel treatment. The (one) nice thing about the AR6500 was that it was all in one... however...
On those same miles, I averaged 16 mpgs (hand calculated) using the Hot Shots and 15.91 mpgs on the AR6500 (hand calculated). That is a pretty small difference, but still a difference. Also, I even got the better mpg's on Hot Shots with almost 100 extra miles figured in. And over those miles I actually filled up 2 times more while using the AR6500 than on the Hot Shots. Still, there are a lot of variables here that could have made these changes... but it is still a difference worth noting.
Back to the Better Diesel, according to Better Diesel, it can also improve the DEF usage as well...
Q: How does Better Diesel FBC decrease my DEF usage?
A: Better Diesel FBC increases the thermal efficiency of all diesel engines which results in the lowering of the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) by a small but significant amount. Since NOx production is thermally driven it is roughly proportional to EGT. As a result, the fuel catalyst treatment has been measured to reduce NOx output by about 15% on average although individual results will vary. In newer engines, the SCR system may respond by injecting less DEF fluid into the SCR system.
And moving on...
Q: Will I see changes to my used engine oil sample?
A: Yes, 60-70% lower soot production by the engine means that engine oil stays cleaner longer. Also, with long-term use of the catalyst you may see an increase in elemental iron. This is nothing to worry about as long as other wear metals stay consistent and low.
And speaking of iron, both Better Diesel and AR6500 use iron as the fuel borne catalyst, however, based on my own personal OA's, my iron levels continue to drop, with the most recent using Better Diesel being even 4 points lower than the previous OA in which I used the AR6500. To be fair, even the iron level of 17 when on AR6500 was well below the listed universal average of 24 (according to Blackstone Labs). But, the most recent report shows my iron level at 9 after using the Better Diesel FBC!
There is also no reason to be concerned with the fuel pump when thinking about the iron in the Better Diesel FBC:
Q: Can Better Diesel FBC potentially cause problems in the high pressure fuel pump or fuel injectors?
A: No. The iron-containing catalyst molecule which serves as the active ingredient in Better Diesel FBC is fully soluble in diesel and gasoline. There are no solid particles of any kind that could possibly cause problems with the high pressure fuel pump or fuel injectors.
And just good to know:
Q. How Does Better Diesel FBC "Clean Your DPF as You Drive?
A. The same catalytic effect lowers the burn off temperature of soot and carbon. This means that you clean your engine and DPF as you drive and prolong engine and component lifetimes.
As to dosing, I would stick to what is listed, which is 1 oz to 25 gallons. It also states right on the bottle to round down when fueling is not an exact number. So I am not sure that I would dose it a little stronger since they specifically say not to...
This is actually something that I wonder about with the Archoil, and causes a little hesitation for me. The Better Diesel is an actual FBC, and they are very clear about dosing for it. However, Archoil is more of a jack of all trades (master of none), but Archoil is happy to suggest that you can double the dose for a performance boost or whatever... so this tells me 1 of 2 possible things.
There isn't enough/much iron added to actually perform as well as a true FBC (which has been verified (for me) by my own results), so double dosing won't hurt anything. Or...
Despite how much iron there actually is, they are more concerned with double dosing to boost the other "benefits" (cash flow) of the product and just aren't concerned with the iron levels.
I don't know... No, I do know... over almost 60k miles, I have been really happy with the Better Diesel FBC... enough so that I am happy enough to continue buying it. I have had some really long regen intervals (up to 896 miles, unloaded) when using Better Diesel's FBC. However, when I gave Archoil what I would consider a fair chance, things took a turn. My mpg's dropped and so did my regen intervals. In my personal experience, the AR6500 seems to me to be the biggest snake oil solution of them all because it claims to do every possible thing on the list, and better than anything else! And if this isn't enough, they have supplied enough influencers with it to get the word out that it is liquid gold and your mpg's will increase ten-fold! Lol... But, based on my own OA's and by hand calculating my mpg's and my regen intervals, none of that happened for me. In fact they got worse...
Last edited by chadstickpoindexter; Yesterday at 07:09 PM.
Good info @chadstickpoindexter thanks for sharing. Where do you buy yours, direct?
I do get mine direct from Better Diesel. I buy the 2 pack of the 16 oz bottles and that last me quite a while so I don't worry about buying a larger quantity.
Ohhh... Better Diesel FBC is good stuff! And to no surprise, I found it to be quite a bit better than the AR6500!
To start, here is a quote about what to expect when you start to use it. I would not expect to see any sort of change for a bit of time such as in just one or 2 tanks of fuel, especially on a truck with a few miles on it that has not been run with an actual FBC to begin with.
I started running Better Diesel FBC in my truck early on... I can't remember exactly when, but I would guess before I hit 10k miles on the truck. I am now at 73k miles and I have ran it in every tank of fuel, except for a 6000+ mile stretch in which I gave the Archoil AR6500 a shot. Here are a few numbers to compare them too:
For the Better Diesel FBC numbers, I used the immediate 6356 miles right up to when I changed over to AR6500. This included about 800 miles towing our camper, the rest unloaded:
Regens: 7
Average regen interval: 941.2 miles.
For the AR6500 numbers, I used 2 entire bottles (it came as a 2 pack), which covered 6,278 miles, of which, I towed our camper about 1000 miles and the rest unloaded. Probably 2/3's of my filll ups were using there standard dose while the rest was the doubled up "performance" dose.
Regens: 7
Average regen interval: 868.5
I was clearly getting a larger interval between regens using the Better Diesel FBC, and after thinking about it for a while, I wonder if because I had used the Better Diesel FBC for so long right up to trying the AR6500 is the only reason I got as good of numbers with the Archoil that I did... Also, being that I towed more miles while using the AR6500, I would have thought that would have given the edge to the AR6500, but the Better Diesel still beat it out by 70 mile longer average regens. Now this may not seem like much on just a couple of regens, but over time it can add up. Based on these numbers, for every 100k miles I should average 106 regens on the Better Diesel and 115 on the Archoil. So 9 more regens per hundred thousand miles. That still may not seem like many more, but after 300k miles, that's 27 more regens on the AR6500... and so on...
It's also worth mentioning that alongside the Better Diesel FBC, I was using Hot Shots EDT for my actual fuel treatment. The (one) nice thing about the AR6500 was that it was all in one... however...
On those same miles, I averaged 16 mpgs (hand calculated) using the Hot Shots and 15.91 mpgs on the AR6500 (hand calculated). That is a pretty small difference, but still a difference. Also, I even got the better mpg's on Hot Shots with almost 100 extra miles figured in. And over those miles I actually filled up 2 times more while using the AR6500 than on the Hot Shots. Still, there are a lot of variables here that could have made these changes... but it is still a difference worth noting.
Back to the Better Diesel, according to Better Diesel, it can also improve the DEF usage as well...
And moving on...
And speaking of iron, both Better Diesel and AR6500 use iron as the fuel borne catalyst, however, based on my own personal OA's, my iron levels continue to drop, with the most recent using Better Diesel being even 4 points lower than the previous OA in which I used the AR6500. To be fair, even the iron level of 17 when on AR6500 was well below the listed universal average of 24 (according to Blackstone Labs). But, the most recent report shows my iron level at 9 after using the Better Diesel FBC!
There is also no reason to be concerned with the fuel pump when thinking about the iron in the Better Diesel FBC:
And just good to know:
As to dosing, I would stick to what is listed, which is 1 oz to 25 gallons. It also states right on the bottle to round down when fueling is not an exact number. So I am not sure that I would dose it a little stronger since they specifically say not to...
This is actually something that I wonder about with the Archoil, and causes a little hesitation for me. The Better Diesel is an actual FBC, and they are very clear about dosing for it. However, Archoil is more of a jack of all trades (master of none), but Archoil is happy to suggest that you can double the dose for a performance boost or whatever... so this tells me 1 of 2 possible things.
There isn't enough/much iron added to actually perform as well as a true FBC (which has been verified (for me) by my own results), so double dosing won't hurt anything. Or...
Despite how much iron there actually is, they are more concerned with double dosing to boost the other "benefits" (cash flow) of the product and just aren't concerned with the iron levels.
I don't know... No, I do know... over almost 60k miles, I have been really happy with the Better Diesel FBC... enough so that I am happy enough to continue buying it. I have had some really long regen intervals (up to 896 miles, unloaded) when using Better Diesel's FBC. However, when I gave Archoil what I would consider a fair chance, things took a turn. My mpg's dropped and so did my regen intervals. In my personal experience, the AR6500 seems to me to be the biggest snake oil solution of them all because it claims to do every possible thing on the list, and better than anything else! And if this isn't enough, they have supplied enough influencers with it to get the word out that it is liquid gold and your mpg's will increase ten-fold! Lol... But, based on my own OA's and by hand calculating my mpg's and my regen intervals, none of that happened for me. In fact they got worse...
Look at the size of the brain on this guy...
I have been running a Better Diesel FBC rebranded product, from Pittsburgh Power called Max Mileage. First ran it by itself, but now run it mixed (their recommendation and mix ratio) with another of their additives called Flashpoint, a K100 style additive (I run it for more cetane as it adds more than the K100D) and unfortunately have NOT kept as good of a job of tracking this stuff like "Big Brain" Chad.
I do see minor reductions in SL% on the iDash when EGT4 temps reach at least 470s, so yes, I do believe the Max Mileage is helping the DPF by reducing the combustion temperature of soot in the filter.
The other day when it was hotter outside for this time of year here in WNY, I saw the most reduction in SL%, or passive regeneration, that I have seen when EGT4 temps were in the 700s. Truck went FULL, iDash at 138% and truck did not go live (active). I was on the expressway and the EGTs got hot quickly. I forgot what the iDash dropped to, but the truck went down to 85%. The next day a regen happened and it was 455 miles out from the previous regen.
The truck IMO does get worked enough from the hilly terrain that I live in, but due to the local lower speed driving I do at times and the fact I am not pulling a load or have the truck loaded, if I do more stop and go, with zero hills, then the regen interval will drop due to faster soot accumulation in the DPF because EGT4 is lower and not hot enough to support passive regeneration.
All in all, I think my truck does well for an unloaded daily driver and I have the hills to thank for that. But I also believe the FBC helps out as well. Personally, I use it to help with the DPF as my paid off diesel daily driver that I don't need but love driving and working on, is a keeper.
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